Week before last, I polled my readers to ask if I should take advantage of the inexpensive round-trip fares between the U.S. and Germany on airberlin. Most of you encouraged me to take this chance and write a story on it, so I decided to go ahead with it…
…and so I’m heading to Berlin this weekend.
The fare from Chicago to Berlin was very inexpensive, and you can still find sub-$500 round trips on various days of the week via airberlin.com. The one thing to note is that many of the transatlantic routes from Berlin will be cut starting September 25, while a few from Dusseldorf will go on the same date.
Impacted routes include:
From Berlin:
- Abu Dhabi
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York
- San Francisco
From Dusseldorf
- Boston
- Orlando
- Curacao
- Cancun
- Havana
- Varadero
- Punta Cana
- Puerto Plata
Presumably, this means that the following long-haul routes will remain on airberlin unless otherwise stated by the carrier:
From Dusseldorf
- Chicago (starting May 2018)
- Fort Myers
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York JFK
- San Francisco
However, there have been some reports that the routes from Dusseldorf to JFK and MIA have been all zeroed out except for the most expensive fares. Fort Myers is obviously inoperable at the moment due to Hurricane Irma.
Point being, a lot is up in the air right now.
My Booking
As of last week, I was able to find the following inventory to allow for a quick weekend trip to TXL:
Bear in mind, however, that airberlin does charge for seat selections, starting at 25 EURO. So, many elements of this random trip will entail, “winging it.”
There are also options to order premium meals from airberlin on the return flight from Berlin to Chicago. It looks like you can choose between Chicken Enchiladas, Schnitzel, Ossobuco Alla Milanese, Thai Green Chicken Curry, “Arabic Journey,” Parmesan Meatballs or Vegetarian Massaman Curry. I haven’t decided if it is worth it to order these meals?
I personally am just going to go as an observer and soak up everything that I can about the carrier before it officially shuts down the vast majority of its long-haul operations.
Expect some reporting to come out of this visit. You can follow me live on twitter @rohanaanand to keep on tabs of what I uncover as I go.
If you have any things you’d like for me to report on, please let me know.
